When buying new construction, you should try to do at least two walk through inspections before signing your closing papers. Do one early, maybe two weeks ahead of time. Go back BEFORE you sign your closing papers and check to see if everything from the first walk through was done. You can’t really hold up closing for minor items, so more walk through inspections are better than just one. As many as you can get away with.

But here’s the TIP of the DAY! I love this one and so do my clients. We bring our own blue tape. The new construction person will usually have blue tape, and when you point out a problem, they usually put a piece of blue tape on it. But sometimes if they think it is a picky item, they don’t, and you have to bug them to put a piece of blue tape on it. So bring your own blue tape. Give everyone blue tape. Then you don’t have to call the new construction person for every piddly little item.

Then everywhere there is blue tape at the end, you make a list of the items, and where you don’t expect the builder to be able to fix an item, you put a credit amount if they can’t fix it. Example, there was a little scratch on the stainless steel refrigerator. It’s a large all new condo complex. You put down that you want a $250 credit (whatever) if they can’t buff it out. The builder can just switch it out if he wants, and give you the one in the unit next door and hope they don’t see it, if he doesn’t want to give you the credit. You’d probably be happier with the one with no scratch, but at least you won’t have to suck up the one with the scratch without a credit. Another example. A little piece of slab granite in the back of the shower, where the two pieces meet, was chipped. You could only feel it, you couldn’t see it. The builder isn’t going to fix that. He’s not going to rip that whole shower apart and bring in a whole new piece of slab granite for a little chip you can’t even see. But you should get a credit for imperfections that can’t be fixed.

When the workers come to fix things, they can’t tell the builder reps tape from everyone else’s tape, so they just fix it all. That’s why it must be BLUE tape. Actually it has to be the same color they use. If you have green and they have blue, they can pull all of your piddly items off. But if it’s all blue, it will be next to impossible for them to sort out whose blue tape was whose.

Works great. And buyers love running around with their own blue tape, and not having to ask the person to PLEASE put a piece of blue tape on this and that. You are more likely to catch everything, if you have your own blue tape.